WASHINGTON - What can people do to protect their privacy from massive data-mining efforts by U.S. and other intelligence services? The answer is not much, short of going off the grid completely.

Reports in The Washington Post and the Guardian newspapers last week allege that the government has been secretly accessing the phone records of tens of millions of Verizon customers, as well as online videos, emails, photos and other data collected by nine Internet service providers.

Privacy advocates say most consumers long ago swapped privacy for convenience, but few realize the degree to which their digital activities are being tracked.

The head of the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union says Granite Staters who are outraged by such revelations should contact their elected representatives.

"We're talking about gathering information on millions of people throughout the country, and it could be their data that's being collected and tracked," said Devon Chaffee, executive director of NHCLU.

Based on her conversations with people in New Hampshire, Chaffee said, "I think a lot of people are pretty outraged and concerned about this type of broad, sweeping surveillance by the federal government that's collecting data on millions of individuals without cause, with no suspicion of wrongdoing."

"The type of information that's being collected is very personal, and in some cases it's very private," she said.

In an unscientific poll posted online at unionleader.com, 76 percent of the 243 respondents said that "personal privacy" is more important to them than "national security," while 24 percent value national security more. The survey was posted Friday evening, and results were collected about 7 p.m. Saturday.

Nearly 90 percent of respondents said they would be "bothered" or "very bothered" by the government accessing records of their phone or Internet activity.

Nearly half - 48 percent - of those who took the survey acknowledged they knew "very little" about the so-called PRISM program, while 28 percent knew "a lot" and 24 percent knew "nothing" about it.

"secretly accessing the phone records of tens of millions of Verizon customers, as well as online videos, emails, photos and other data collected by nine Internet service providers."

I do not think that this is acceptable. Why do they not spend their time targeting those likely to commit acts of terrorism. Their profile cannot be so similar to me or you. Why waste time on 85 percent of our population.